Stamp-delivering device for vending machines



Ami-l 8 1924.

R. T. HOSKING STAMRDELIVERING DEVICE FOR VENDING MACHINES Filed April 8,1921 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIH] llllll llllPMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHI ATTOR NEY Patented Apr. 8, 192%..

'ENHTED STATES PATENT JFFICE.

RICHARD T. HOSKING, OF SAGINAW, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN BANKINGMACHINE CORPORATION, OF SAGINAW, MICHIGAN, A. CORPORATION OF DELA- WARE.

STAMPr-DELIVERING DEVICE FOR VENDING MACHINES.

Application filed April 8, 1921. Serial No. 459,577.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, RICHARD T. HosKrNe, a citizen of the United States,residing at Saginaw, in the county of Saginaw and State of Michigan,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Stamp- DeliveringDevices for Vending Machines; and I do hereby declare the following tobe a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as willenable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and usethe same.

This invention relates to stamp vending machines of the character shownin my previous Patent No. 1,234,029 of July 17, 1917, and the presentimprovement pertains more particularly to an arrangement and combinationof devices by which the stamps are automatically fed out from themachine upon the depositing of a coin in the machine. r

Heretofore it has been the usual practice to mount a roll of stamps on apintle and to feed the stamps from the machine by passing the unrollingstrip of stamps along a metallic guide-way that extends upwardly andthence over the top periphery of a feed wheel. The feed wheel wasprovided with prongs or feed-wheel pins that projected through slots inthe guide-plate and engaged the stamp perforations to feed the stampsforwardly and out from the machine.

It has also been the custom to provide around the periphery of the feedwheel and exterior to the curved part of the guide way a curved topstamp guide or frame so arranged that the outgoing stamps traveledbetween the periphery of the wheel and the under side of the said topstamp guide, the gummed faces of the stamps carried by and sliding uponthe top face of the guide-way.

Various objections have developed in practice to the use of this curvedtop stamp guide and it is one of the objects of my resent improvement toprovide a device y which the curved top stamp guideheretofore employedis eliminated, and its functions are performed in a better manner.

A. further object of my invention is to provide an improved device bywhich warped stamps can be accurately and positively .fed out of themachine, being smoothed and flattened as they emerge from the machine,this smoothing operation being performed in such a manner as to avoidliabilty of buckling the stamps, and stalling the machine on account of[the resistance resulting from buckling. My improved stamp feed alsoincreases :the smoothness of operation of the machine by preventing thestamp from encountering the upwardly directed deflecting or stampdelivery plate until after the feed-wheel pins have engaged the stampperforations, thereby preventing the stamps fron" curling when fed out.

With these and certain other objects in view which will appear later inthe specification, my invention comprises .the devices described andclaimed and the equiva+ lents thereof.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a side view of those parts of a stamp vendingmachine to which my present invention pertains.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the machine shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a transverse section through the feed wheel. a

Fig. 4.- is a detached top plan View of the lower stamp guide.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the feed.- ing out guideand. cutter.

Fig. 6' is an enlarged front view of the same, showing the cuttingteeth.

Fig. 7 is a side view of the same in relation to the feed wheel and feedwheel pins, the wheel being broken away in part. i

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic perspective view of the feed wheel and thesectional pressure rollers by which the stamps are held to the feedwheel.

Fig. 9 is a rear view of the same, broken away in part.

As has before been stated, experience in delivering gummed stamps bymeans of a machine of the character described in my former patent abovereferred to has shown that gummed stamps have various peculiarcharacteristics that render the ordinary methods of delivering them bysliding along a flat or curved surface ineffective under certainconditions, such as changes of weather, humidity, etc. I have found thatin humid weather a gummed stamp that appears to be perfectly dry anddoes not show any tendency to stick with ordinary handling, can be madeto stick by sliding it over a metal surface, applying slight pressureand moving the stamp quickly through a very short distance. I find thatsliding it a distance equal to its own length on such a surface mayresult in making it instantly adhere to the surface. This characteristicaccounts for the difficulty experienced in delivering stamps by slidingthem over a stationary guide plate.

In my present improvement I have so arranged! the delivery mechanismthat the stamps 1 travel out of the machine by riding on the feedingwheel 2 not in contact with the lower stamp guide 3 or other stationarysurfaces, so that there is no tendency for the stamp to stick on accountof sliding contacts.

It has also been found that where continuous curved top stamp guides areused to hold the stamp down to the periphery of the feed wheel, there ismore or less tendency for the stamps to warp. They sometimes tend towarp inwardy and sometimes outwardly, and they may warp transversely,diagonally, or longitudinally, depending upon the temperature orhumidity of the air and also upon the grain and thickness of the paperof which the stamps are made.

When stamps so warped are fed between a feeding wheel 2 and a continuouscurved guide that encircles the working periphery of the wheel, there islikelihood of the stamps warping in such a manner as to cause them tostick and clog the machine.

My present invention is so devised that the continuous curved top stampguides are eliminated and provision is made for flattening the stamps,no matter in what way they may be warped and regardless of the grain andthickness of the paper, and I effect this flattening operation withoutexpenditure of enough mechanical energy to impair the operation of thefeeding mechanism of the machine.

To flatten the stamp and also to feed it upwardly and out in a positivemanner, I provide a pressure roller 4;, which is preferably a sectionalor broken roll, the periphery of which runs on the periphery of thestamp wheel, or when stamps are in'the machine, upon the face of thestamp, thereby exerting a slight pressure'upon the stamp to hold it tothe rim of the wheel.

The sectional roller at is yieldingly mounted, as upon the end of apivoted arm 6, so as to accommodate itself to various thicknesses ofpaper. By its weight it exerts the proper amount of pressure upon thestamp to hold it to the wheel and to properly enter the wheel pins intothe perforations of the stamp.

The strip of stamps 1 having been properly located upon the feedingwheel 2-and held down by the roller 4: to the face of the Wheel,travelswith the wheel 2, but preferably not in close contact with thelower stamp guide 3, and passes under the out going guide 7, shown inFigs. 1, 5 and 7. The function of this guide is to smooth out the warpedstamp before it leaves the machine.

Heretofore it has been customary to attempt to smooth the warped stampsby forcibly feeding them between an upper and a. lower guide surface,but I have found in practice that the stamps are usually warped not onlylengthwise, but also transversely and I, therefore, so arrange theoutgoing guide 7 that the middle part of the guide will have the efiectof first flattening or smoothing out the central part of the advancingstamp and after the central part has been smoothed the two sides of theguide will then smooth out the two edges of the stamp. The smoothingoperation is thus accomplished in two steps, first, smoothing the middleof the stamp and then smoothing its edges, thus preventing the troublewhich has heretofore been experienced of buckling the stamps byattempting to smooth the whole width of the stamp at one time.

The smoothing action of the guide 7 will be understood by reference toFigs. 5 and 7, where it will be seen that the stamp first encounters thetwo long central fingers 8, 8 of the guide, which smooth out the middleof the stamp and then as the stamp passes farther forward the edges ofthe stamp encounter the lateral fingers 9, 9, which at their rear endsare raised slightly higher than the rear ends of the central fingers 8,8, so that as the stamp moves forward,'the edges which may be curledeither upwardly or downwardly, will be thoroughly smoothed before thestamp leaves the outgoing edge of the guide and passes under its teeth10, illustrated in Fig. 6.

The relation between the working length of the guide '7 and theperipheral spacing of the feed wheel pins 5, as shown in Fig. 1, isanother feature of my invention. It will be noticed that the distancefrom the rear ends of the middle fingers 8, 8 of the guide 7 and thenearest set of feed wheel pins 5 is less than the distance from thetoothed end 10 of the guide to the point 11 where the stamp engages theupwardly directed deflecting plate 12. Therefore, when a stamp is to beissued from the machine the first part of the movement of the wheel 2feeds the stamp forward a short distance and brings the feed wheel pins5 under the rear ends of the middle fingers 8, 8 of the guide 7 beforethe advancing edge of the stamp 1 comes into contact with the deflectingplate 12, so that the front edge of the stamp when it strikes thedeflecting plate will not act to displace the rear end of the stamp. Thefeed wheel pins 5 are then in i ,asaeas register with the slot 13between the guide fingers, and the rear edge of the stamp is therebysecurely held in position and can not be made to buckle by the impact ofthe front edge of the stamp against the deflect ing plate 12.

To thread a strip of stamps into the ma chine, it is only necessary toraise the sectional roller 4, put the stamps 1 in place on the wheel 2and allow the roller l to drop into its normal position. The front edgeof the strip of stamps is then entered under the rear ends of the guidefingers 8, 8 without disturbing the guide 7 itself, or changing itsrelation with respect to the periphery of the wheel or the feed wheelpins. The feeding device is then ready for operation as described in myPatent No. 1,234,029 above referred to.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

1. In a stamp vending machine having a feeding wheel, a feed-out devicecomprising a stationary guide located in proximity to the periphery ofsaid wheel, said guide having integral rearwardly extending side fingersand longer middle fingers spaced apart,

said side fingers raised slightly higher above the Wheel at their rearends than the rear ends of said middle fingers, said fingers adapted toprogressively smooth first the central parts and then the side edges ofwarped stamps passed beneath said stationary guide.

2. In astamp vending machine, the c0mbination of a stamp feeding wheelhaving projecting pins thereon, a pivotally mounted arm, a pressureroller mounted on the end of said arm and yieldingly pressing upon theupper rim of said wheel, a onepiece stationary guide located in advanceof said roller and in proximity to the periphery of said wheel, saidguide having teeth on its front edge and having rearwardly extendingside fingers and longer middle fingers spaced apart and said sidefingers raised slightly higher above the wheel at their rear ends thanthe rear ends of said middle finger and adapted to progressively smoothfirst the middle parts and then the side edges of warped stamps passedbeneath said guide.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

RICHARD T. HOSKING.

